Quote Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn
...

Since the 2000 election the Liberals have consistently lost seats in parliament. They won 172 seats in 2008, 135 in 2004, 103 in 2006 and only 76 seats in 2008. Even if the NDP and Liberals merged (not such a far-fetched idea), they still would still have less seats than the Conservatives. And yet, AND YET, the head of the Liberal party may be our next (unelected) Prime Minister. I'm sorry, but I have an issue with that. Look at the numbers in the last 4 elections. Canadians have spoken and it appears to be meaningless.

...
As principal oppositon party, the Liberal Party's performance in the last Parliament was dismal, I'd agree. Their long refusal to defeat the Conservative goverment was self-serving in that they presumed an early election would result in a Conservative majority, (as did the Conservatives). Stéphane Dion was pretty much a flop as Liberal and opposition leader.

Despite the poor Liberal opposition performace, the Harper Conservatives still couldn't gleen a majority and got only 38% of popular vote. It's far-fetched to insist that we have to live with their do-nothing-but-harm right-wing policies because they somehow represent the will of the people. I don't think the opposition parties are going to play the Conservatives arrogant game again this time; if the government is defeated, there will either be another election or there will be a coalition of formerly opposition parties.

Besides a complete non-reaction to the economic crisis, the Conservatives budget update included slashing public funding for political parties -- this would have disadvantaged all the political parties except the Conservatives. Adding this insult to the general injury might well have been Harper's ploy to precipitate an election which in his hubris he probably thinks he would win. Could it be the Harper is genuinely shocked that opposition parties are considering a coalition????